Acid is what stops a drink being syrup. It is the single most important thing most home cocktails are short of, and the reason bottled juice ruins a Margarita.
Everything here leans on fresh citrus. Squeeze it the same day.
The list
- Aperol Spritz — Three parts prosecco, two parts Aperol, one part soda. Low in alcohol, impossible to get wrong, built for the afternoon.
- Daiquiri — Rum, lime and sugar. The simplest real test of whether a bar knows what it is doing.
- Mai Tai — Two rums, lime, orgeat and curaçao. No pineapple juice, no grenadine, no umbrella required.
- Margarita — Tequila, lime and orange liqueur in balance — a sour so well built it survived decades of being made badly.
- Mojito — Rum, lime, mint and soda — built in the glass, and ruined more often by over-muddling than by anything else.
- Moscow Mule — Vodka, lime and ginger beer. A deliberate 1940s marketing invention that turned out to be a genuinely good drink.
- Paloma — Mexico’s actual favourite tequila drink. Grapefruit, lime, salt — lighter and more drinkable than a margarita.
- Whiskey Sour — The sour template in its most familiar form — and the easiest place to learn what egg white actually does.
How we chose these
Flavour profile tagged citrusy or sour, with fresh citrus as a required ingredient.
Membership is generated from that rule, not hand-picked, so it stays honest as the library grows.